Goodbye, Ms. Furstenthal

Beth Furstenthal sits at her desk, normally occupied by one of her students, in room 511 of Las Lomas High School. She sports a red sweater over a turquoise shirt and dark blue pants. She wears a gold necklace around her neck and her glasses sit on the bridge of her nose.

“I definitely will miss the kids,” says Furstenthal with a smile. “What I will not miss is getting up at 4 a.m. to grade papers and spending my weekends grading papers.” 

On June 10, more than 27 years after starting at Las Lomas, she is set to retire along with this years’ class of 2011. Furstenthal earned a reputation as a difficult teacher who is a stickler when it comes to proper grammar and the correct use of the English language. However, many of her students came to respect her teaching style and attention to detail.

Tierra Gindt, who just completed her freshman year at Point Loma Nazarene University, is one of these students. Gindt’s appreciation for Furstenthal as a teacher did not happen right away.

“Ms. Furstenthal seemed intimidating the first few weeks because she meant business,” said Gindt. “She was determined to help every student in the class improve their writing skills, and stop the ‘inexcusable’ sophomore writing errors…Now, after finishing my first year of college I still hear Ms. Furstenthal's voice every time I write.  The consistent comments I received on my sophomore essays still play in my head.  When I write papers now I'm sure to always prove a point with every sentence so I don't hear Ms. Furstenthal saying, ‘So What?’”  

Born in Prescott, Arizona, Furstenthal describes herself as a “voracious” reader when she was younger. “I was one of those kids who would go to the library and check out ten books and read them in a few days then go back and want ten more. That was the maximum, I can remember, that they would let you check out.”

Her love of reading continued as she went on to the University of Arizona and earned her bachelor’s degree in history, with a minor in English. She continued at the University of Arizona to gain a master’s degree in history. 

Although she loved history, coming out of college the only teaching job available was in English. Although she had no experience teaching English,  she was hired and became, in her words, “a self-taught English teacher. ”

Furstenthal first came to the Acalanes Union High School District in the fall of 1981 as a home teacher. When a teacher retired at Las Lomas in January 1984, she began  teaching.

Norman Dea, the former director of Instrumental Music at Las Lomas High School, and now the current director at Acalanes High School, began working at Las Lomas in September of 1983, a few months before Furstenthal arrived. Dea worked with her for more than 24 years.

“She was always a really good supporter of the music program, and she is a real teacher,” said Dea. “She always supported the kids first. She is a highly respected teacher. One of the most respected at Las Lomas.” 

After retiring, Furstenthal looks forward to being able to have her mornings and weekends free of grading papers, in addition to being a more active grandmother to her two grandchildren. She'll also spend more time gardening. She knows that her retirement coincides with a time when some students might need her most.

“The thing that makes me saddest about retiring is I would like to leave feeling that education is going in the right direction,” said Furstenthal. “It is scandalous as far as I’m concerned that they are shortchanging a generation of kids. I would like to say education is in great hands and things are going to get better. Unfortunately that’s not how I feel.” 

Even though Furstenthal is pessimistic about the current state of education she can take solace in the fact that her legacy will continue with her students because she helped so many improve. One of whom was Gindt.

“I admire Ms. Furstenthal's high expectations of her students," Gindt said. "I felt sometimes teachers went easy on their students assuming material or assignments were too difficult. But Furstenthal was the first teacher I had who really challenged me. After finishing sophomore English I felt that I could do anything, because nothing could be possibly harder than her class...but then I went to college.”